Former Police Chief John Trevena recommended raising commuter parking fees from $425 to $450 a year and merchant/tenant parking fees from $225 to $250 a year. Divided on whether it made sense to raise rates, council recommended “more homework” to be done on the issue.

Tsukamoto returned Monday night with a collection of new ideas — from creating 23 “premium” spots in the Maple Street parking lot for residents at “a premium price of $1,300 a year” to changing permit spots to daily spots. The premium spots would cost about $5 a day, the same fee that is charged in the lot at the train station. The Maple Street lot is directly across from the train station and is the closest borough-owned lot to the station.

When Tsukamoto said “$1,300 a year” members of the council and the audience looked stunned.

She calculated that this would bring an additional $20,000 a year into the borough’s coffers.

Converting 23 permit parking spots into daily spots in parking lot three — the lot next to the public safety — would generate another $30,000, she said. That lot already has a collection box for daily parkers and no changes need to be made.

As a side note she told the council that the police department advised her it didn't have the resources to police the newly created daily spots in the Maple Avenue lot and favored simply creating the 23 new resident commuter spots in the Maple Street lot for the same $425 a year — first come, first served.

When it came time to discuss her suggestion, council members reacted negatively.

Tsukamoto said resident Bob Jennings suggested selling those premium spots for $2,000. While that seemed too high for her, the approximate $5 a day fee seemed more appropriate.

“I don’t know what it gets us to sell these premium spots for $1,300," Councilman Robert Catalanello said. "Why don’t we just offer our spots to Madison residents for $425 … and once the demand for Madison residents is satisfied, we can offer non-residents spots for $1,300 and they can park wherever they want. For those Warren Buffetts among us, who think paying $425 is too little, we should pass the message that if they want to pay more for parking, we will happily accept it.”

Mayor Bob Conley said the numbers Tsukamoto were using didn't "work for me” because he sees no excess capacity in the resident commuter permit category. “It doesn’t sound right.”

He suggested Tsukamoto come back with a plan that includes a plan to sell non-resident permits after a certain date, in the event residents don’t snap up all the available permits. He also suggested she look at the possibility of selling a discounted summer-only permit to help summer interns; empty parking places are common during the summer months.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Jennings said the $5 a day parking in the crescent parking lot are gone by 7:30 a.m., so the 23 spots in the Maple Street lot are “very valuable” and "we ought to market those” to help boost the borough’s revenue.

“We miss out on a opportunity for some revenue generation by mixing everything in,” he said before suggesting that council focus on “the vacant spaces on the Maple Avenue lot and try to maximize the revenue potential that is there. Keep it simple. Simple is possible.”

He also suggested making the spots “reserved spots.”

Conley thanked him and said his proposal had “two things we like" — it's simple and it creates revenue. Conley then suggested Tsukamoto consider Jennings’ ideas when meeting with the parking committee.